Biophony and acoustic ecology and robots!

[Sebastian S Cocioba]

A bit off topic from my usual chlorophyll based posts but I thought this may spark some interesting conversation:

So a while ago my boss at the school of visual arts told me I should do an art project at some point just for kicks and ive finally come up with a topic that bridges a few interests of mine: biology (of course), electronics, and sound synthesis.

The goal is to make some BEAM robots (Mark Tilden) that are purely analog based and freeformed using circuit parts as structural elements which emit life-like yet alien and electronic sounds. They can listen for neighboring "insects" and harmonize or respond in a way that can be considered as acoustic mating i.e. Original sound is mutated to represent a random meiosis of parent sounds so each generation becomes further and further modulated. Most animals have specific bandwidths that they stick to as to not interfere or be muffled by other sounds (niche hypothesis). The soundscape of a region is dictated by the sound producing organisms residing in that region. Evolution and what-not.

I will also grow some stable fluorescent protein expressing grass and other plants I've made over the years and present it as a small installation of a walk-in, sit-in garden for meditation and relaxation. Some dim UV lights to excite the fluorophores in a completely blacked out studio room. Basically, if nothing interesting comes of this Ill have a small corner of the lab i can pass out in after a long shift. I don't have a solid "artists statement" yet for why all this will be done or what it means (have no experience in that front) but will try to come up with something that ties it all together.

Working title: "Biosynthetech"...cheesy I know but its just a stand in.

The robots will be powered by a series of mudpie batteries or a potato or something to keep it all biologically grounded. They will be ultra low power and ideally harness power during the day by solar or ambient RF radiation (i know i know ambient Wifi is not going to be enough power) and then sing and glow with diffused LEDs at "night".

While doing some preliminary research (wiki-google) i came across some fun concepts like said "niche hypothesis" and found the whole bandwidth allocation in nature to be very interesting. One question I had is what is the average length of sound bite an organism produces? No more than a few seconds? Is that because its optimized for energy conservation? Time for recipient to process?

That got me thinking about human words and their brevity. We don't have words that go on for more than a few seconds at most (german). Why is it that we can process audio data so quickly yet we packetize the data into words? Why such a short length of time per word? Any thoughts, comments, criticisms are much appreciated.

PS the rf power and mating system are long shots (time wise) but worth exploring, no?

THANKS!

Sebastian S. Cocioba
CEO & Founder
New York Botanics, LLC

[Ujjwal Thaakar]

Very very interesting ideas. While I have no knowledge about the said ideas, I appreciate them. I'll try to think over and see if I can come up with further ideas to augment and enhance your art. Have you thought about somehow integrating bluetooth low energy in this to share data amongst these robots? Just a random thought.

[Sebastian S Cocioba]

Id like to keep the signal path 100% analog if possible and just have the insects react (via electret microphone) to each-other's signal in some fun way. Same way how analog synthesizers can take any input voltage (within circuit tolerance) and use that as the fundamental of their modulation. I could tune the gain of the mic so it only picks up sounds at close range (higher volume) so there isn't much crosstalk except when in "mating proximity". Maybe even have the bicore of the robot go into a mating dance state with lights and stuff before harmonizing their fundamental frequencies much like the rituals many organisms conduct. The possibilities are endless!

The idea is to mimic natural sonic behavior but without sampling from nature itself. Purely electronic sounds following the "guidelines" of terrestrial soundscapes. Would be fun to make an artificial biome with sounds and lights coming from various locations (underwater, on a tree, in the grass, underground). Ultimately Id like to make a multi-sensory piece linking different synthetic fields together. From the custom fluorophores in the plants, to the engineered microbes in the anaerobic mudpie batteries, to the silicon-based "lifeforms" that chirp and glow. A relaxing alien audio-visual experience for friends to enjoy.

Sebastian S. Cocioba

CEO & Founder

New York Botanics, LLC

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[Carlos Castellanos]

Hi Sebastian,

Here are some artists work similar to what you are thinking. MIght be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLYvF83Qrrc

http://www.haque.co.uk/evolvingsonicenvironment.php

http://simonpenny.net/works/sympathetic.html

The first two (as far as I know) have a purely analog signal path.

I had an idea for similar project a few years back but it didn't get past the conceptualization stage (mostly due to budget constraints).

Best

Carlos

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/E7FA87ED-7BE6-403C-9FD9-6C1C8D51BD68%40gmail.com.

[Sebastian S Cocioba]

Thanks so much! Looking forward to checking those out. Am currently breadboarding some voltage controlled oscillator circuits I penned on the way to work. Found a good direction for the type of sound also - binaural beats. Playing with the idea of a symbiotic relationship between the stationary and highly dependent robots and their human caretakers. The robots need their batteries changed and bodies maintained. In exchange they relax the human with neurologically stimulating sounds. Will flesh it out more but for now just going to be toying with getting the right kind of pink noise while avoiding biomimicry. Will post updates as I go.

Sebastian S. Cocioba

CEO & Founder

New York Botanics, LLC

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/2CD8E482-FD74-4C59-B104-9DC6FA5D3605%40gmail.com.